Herb Wilcox and Charles Ross

Herb Wilcox was an industrial engineer with Westinghouse Electric Company in the 1950s and ’60s and led the team of engineers that created the photo-sensitive device on the video camera used to record Neil Armstrong’s historic step off the shuttle ladder in August 1969 and several other lunar landings.

Wilcox spent much of his life overseas after leaving Westinghouse, teaching in the Philippines and consulting with the Arabian American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia. His time abroad influenced his advocacy of alternative energy and made him a staunch proponent of solar-energy generation.

Charles Ross is Professor of Physics at Longwood University.  He began at Longwood in 1992 and served as Dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences from 2005 to 2014.  His work on science, technology and the Civil War has led to three books and appearances on The History Channel, PBS and the National Geographic Channel. He has worked with Longwood students on alternative energy projects in the Amazon region of Ecuador, in the Caribbean and in Virginia.